CHAPTER 24
BETRAYALIn the history of the Soviet penal system there has probably never been a camp which
did not have its stool pigeons or , the Russians call them, "stukachi," meaning
knockers. These informers usually are people with questionable pasts and moral
standings,
a, well as poor educations. But in ramp #17-A the stool pigeons s a young woman recently
graduated from, institute of higher learning. She was not Russian with a dark
past, but
rather a Latvian woman with an enlightened background. At first I was credulous when
several Jehovah's Witness told me that my countrywoman Erna passed information to the
administration.

There is not a single convict in the Soviet penal camp system whom the administration
has not tried to recruit as informer. This does not happen during the first days, but
after about a year of captivity when the relationships with other prisoners have developed
and certain things have been learned. Then the proposal comes quite unexpectedly.

Camp #17-A was visited weekly by a Cheka representative named
Yershov. A black-haired
Russian of medium build, about forty, Yershov carried himself. As he walked through the
gate toward his office he seemed unaware of people, however, he saw everyone. Everyone
realized Yershov was dangerous and remained on their guard when talking to him. As he
spoke, his face became distorted by a false grin which continued throughout the
conversation.

One Friday he ordered a whole list of women to his
office. There were about twelve of us, mostly Jehovah's Witnesses, waiting in a long line in the
corridor. My turn came. I
knocked and walked in. Yershov sat behind a desk and, assuming his best false smile and
addressed me by my first name. This is not the normal style of address in a Soviet
prison.
The informality immediately put me on guard, but I tried to appear witless and
asked:
"How do you know my first name?"

"You should realize that it is my duty to know all about
you, and to take care of you."

"That is odd," I said, "What do you want from
me?"

"I don't want anything, but I would like to help
you."

"To help me personally, or all of us here at the
camp?"

"This time I am talking about you
personally. I would like to relieve your present situation."

"How?"

"I would like you to understand me
correctly. A lot depends on me; I can allow you
to receive food parcels from your relatives and for two rubles a month you will be able to
buy something at the store."

"Thank you for your kindness, but I don't have the money for the store, and for a
ruble a month I won't be able to buy anything anyway. What do you want in return?"

"Oh, you are cunning," he pretended to be laughing at a
joke.

"Well, we are living in times when nobody does anything for
nothing."

Yershov made a somber face and continued. "You understand
everything, but you
don't realize that this can have an adverse effect on you and your future."

"What has this got to do with my future. I am serving sentence completely without
reason, and when it is finished, then goodbye to you and to everybody else."

"But what about my reference?"

"What sort of reference do I need from you? I spit on that kind of
reference."

"But do you understand correctly what I have asked of
you?'

"'That I should bring you information about the other
prisoners."

"That's not quite so, you have misunderstood
me. I would like you to speak with
the Jehovah's Witnesses and find the main leaders."

"As a service for you?"

"You see only evil in our work, but you don't understand that we work to keep
people out of prisons."

"I laugh at your noble words. Why do you need the main
leaders?"

"That's because well, you know yourself that most of them are uneducated and
stupid, and they would have been sent home long ago if they had been willing to regret
their breaches of the law. But their main leaders don't permit it, and that's why they sit
in camp. If you would find their leaders, think of the benefits for the others and
yourself. First, many of them would be released before their time and second, you could
receive food from home. And, maybe you will be released sooner also!"

With his last words, the Chekist assumed his glued-on
smile. I understood his strategy.
The older leaders would be taken to Vladimir Prison, and the other Jehovah's Witness would
he worked over one by one to force them to renounce their faith.

I announced loudly and with irony, "If you have decided to trust this important
mission to me, you have made a mistake. I am not the right one for such assignments which
amount to betrayal."

"But maybe you will change your mind?"

"No."

"You may go." Nothing remained of his grin and his words fell like the blows
of an ax. When I was at the door, he reminded me to call in the next woman.

The next in line was one of the leaders of the Jehovah's Witnesses. I embraced her in
the hallway and whispered "Brace yourself?" in her ear. She was kept in the
office for at least two hours.

On following Fridays I began to observe who was called to Yershov's office. Most often
it was Erna. I noticed that Erna acquired lipstick which she wore when she went to the
office. Presumably, from Erna's painted lips flowed the names of women about whom there as
something to report. Anyone else in her place I would have pitied, since her work was not
pleasant, but it did not enter my mind to pity Erna after watching how proudly she opened
the outer door of the administration building. She galled me immensely and my anger grew,
bull without concrete facts, I could say nothing.

Still, I asked, and once said to her quite innocently, " I have noticed that you
walk over to Yershov's office frequently. What does he want with you?"

"Nothing in particular. He says I should help the boys."

"What boys?"

"The ones I was tried with."

"Have you gone out of your mind? Or maybe he has. How could you help them now?
They have been convicted, and received long sentences."

"Don't say that! I can do it."

"Wait a minute. There is something I don't understand. It's turning out that
Yershov is some kind of benefactor rather than a Cheka agent?"

"'That's how it is turning out."

"Then maybe you can tell me n more detail how you can help them. Maybe we should
sit down." We walked to the nearest bench and Erna started her story.

"Yershov told me about every one of our boys, how hard they have to work and so
on. He said that some of them could go home right away if they would write a letter of
regret which could be published in the newspaper. After a short time, the sentence would
be lifted."

"Let him talk to them himself. Why does he get you involved in their
affairs?"

"It concerns Uldis. He knows I like Uldis."

"How can he know that?"

"When they were all discussed, one after the other, he mentioned Uldis also."

"And you, of course, blurted out that you like him."

"And what's bad about that? Yes, I did blurt that out. Now I will be able to help
Uldis."

"That's interesting! How?"

"You see, it was only to my advantage that I told about Uldis. Now I have
permission to write to him at the men's camp."

"Oho!" I was surprised.

"And Yershov gave me Uldis' brother's name and address in Riga. His brother is
still young and goes to secondary school."

"What do you need his address for?"

"Why not, I have to persuade Uldis' brother to ask Uldis to stop resisting
stubbornly and to regret everything. I already sent the text of the letter which his
brother has to send to Uldis."

"And Yershov dictated this text to you?"

"I wrote the text, only the idea came from him."

Uldis is an adult and knows how to behave. Maybe he won't like this. If he is, as you
say, resisting stubbornly, then he must know what he is doing."

"You don't understand anything," Erna said angrily.

"Maybe." Seeing that this subject was closed, I walked away.

Occasionally my suspicions concerning Erna's visits recurred, but one day I learned the
facts. Another Latvian woman received a visit from her daughter. This woman had arrived in
camp # 17-A about six months earlier on a two years sentence because an acquaintance, a
Latvian poet gave her his handwritten book of patriotic poems to read. The woman's
apartment was searched, the poems were found and they were both convicted: The poet for
writing, and the woman for reading. She was accused of anti-Soviet agitation. She received
two years in a strict regime labor camp, while the author received seven years, also in
strict regime labor. Because there are no strict regime labor camps in Latvia, she made
the long trip to Mordovia. Her name was Rute. Although, compared to the other women, Rute
was in the camp only a short time, her joy at her daughter's visit was immense. When she
first heard about it, she flushed with excitement and said, "Where did the child get
the money for such a long trip?"

Railroad travel in the Soviet Union is cheap compared to that in other countries. Rute
told me earlier that she did not suffer as much from the incarceration as from the thought
that her menage daughters were left without any means of support. Nothing at home could be
sold, and the girls were still going to school and were too young to work. Rute had a hard
life because her husband died young, leaving her with three children. She worked as a
bookkeeper earning eighty rubles a month, and she managed to support her family with her
small vegetable garden plot near Riga. The children carried water in buckets from a ditch.
Then her son, the eldest, married, and Rute was left with the two girls until her arrest.
It was the older daughter, already in her last year in high school, who suddenly arrived.
Although Rute worried about the shortage of money at home, the joy of seeing her daughter
overshadowed her concern. Rute was led out of the penal zone to the small visitor's
cottage to meet her daughter.

Toward the evening of the next day, Ona, who worked in the ambulance, called me aside
and said anxiously, "Rute is in a bad way. I gave her an injection, my last two
ampules. If shhe needs more during the nigh I will have nothing to give her."

"Did she get had news from home?"

"No, not that. It is much worse."

"What could be worse?"

"Betrayal."

"Betrayal?" I repeated, confused.

"Yes, treachery. Erna has betrayed her."

"In what way, and for what?"

"Well listen. Rute received a ten ruble note from her daughter. She did not want
to take it, because of the poverty in which her girls live. But the daughter insisted that
she receives help from the brother. Rute hid the money which was not found during the
search upon leaving the visitors cottage. After walking through the gate into the penal
zone, Rute met Erna and joyfully told her everything. Erna apparently rushed to the guard
shack, because two guards came and rifled through Rute's bed until they found the money
hidden in a pillowcase. The other beds were not touched. Rute collapsed next to her bed.
Valya ran to me and told me what had happened, and we ran to the barracks and carried Rute
to the infirmary."

I felt a lump in my throat. I expected anything from Erna but that. The women had
warned me long ago. " I will drag this snake into the daylight," I muttered
indignantly.

"Just don't do anything rash. Don't do anything that will get you more years
because of that slut."

"No , no, don't worry about me. I am going to drag her into the light with
everybody watching. Is she so stupid to think that nobody will find out? How is she going
to face Rute?"

"You know, I don't understand it either, and have never been able to."

Later, when I saw Erna pumping water, I walked up and asked directly "Can you tell
me why you are betraying other prisoners?"

"She did not lose composure, did not even blink. She straightened up like a cobra
before attacking its victim and chopped her words, "It is the duly of every
conscientious Soviet citizen."

These words numbed my mind and I could only ask, "But how then did you, the
conscientious one, happen to get in here?"

Erna said only, "I got here and that's all."

I walked to the barracks, determined to warn everyone about Erna, the sooner, the
better.

My section of the barracks was active because the second shift preparing to leave for
work. The clothing factory worked two shifts, the day shift from morning until five, and
the evening shift until one in the morning. Some of the woman stepped outside. One was
darning her completely worn out dress, another one was writing a letter to her relatives.
Some close enough to the light were reading. It was quit in the barracks. Erna reclined on
her cot and paged through a magazine. I felt the moment had arrived.

I pulled myself together and went to the long table in the middle of the section.
Pressing my palms against the table edge for support, I said, "Women, listen! There
is a dangerous traitor among us; she will spare nobody. If any of you have secrets, keep
them hidden so she won't be able to betray you."

The eyes of the women riveted upon me. Some were not surprised since they knew it
already, but those who heard it for the first time were greatly taken aback. "Who is
she?," exploded from all sides.

After a short dramatic pause, I pointed at Erna, and said, "There she is. My
countrywoman Erna." I drank a glass of water because my hands trembled.

The quiet of the section was replaced by loud conversation as nearly every woman spoke
to her nearest roommate or sister-in-faith. Not the least concerned, Erna continued to
look through her magazine as if she did not care what people were saying. That's how
confident she was. My words were like water rolling off a duck's back. This event was
discussed in the camp for several days. There had been many previous cases of suspicion
but never had they been discussed as openly as I dared to. I received many words of
thanks, and several women embraced and kissed me.

I never spoke to Erna again. Through others she tried to renew normal relations with
me, but I refused.

Fortunately, Rute recovered without any serious consequence. She did not know who had
betrayed her in Riga when her house was searched for the poetry book. She did however,
know who betrayed her in captivity about the hidden ten rubles. In less than a year,
Rute's term was up and she was released. None of us learned if she told her children about
the betrayal in the camp. Perhaps not because she was exceptionally sensitive person who
wanted to shield her children.

After Rute left, everything remained as before in- the camp. On Fridays, Yershov
arrived. Erna visited him and continued to do her duty as a conscientious Soviet citizen,
not regarding it as treachery. Finally, Erna stopped sleeping in her bunk during the
nights when Vanya was on guard duty. According to regulations, no one was allowed to leave
the barracks during the night. Erna must have been convinced that none of the women would
turn her in. She was right. No one did.